


against all odds

by kenobis (outoftheam)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Feels, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Everything Hurts, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Inappropriate Use of the Force, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Love/Hate, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-02-21 23:39:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13154505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outoftheam/pseuds/kenobis
Summary: Set post-TLJ,Five years have passed since the resistance was reborn, the legacy of the Jedi now restored throughout the galaxy. With the help of Luke Skywalker’s force-ghost, Rey has completed her training and disappeared to start her own Jedi temple.But when Kylo Ren is captured by the resistance, their force-bond reappearing for the first time since the events of Crait, Rey is drawn back into the heart of the war.This time they must work together to stop the rise of the Sith lord, Snoke, and his new Sith apprentices that threaten to destroy the progress of the resistance.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hate myself I decided to start writing a new fic (don't worry I'm still writing my other one!!!!).

Rey sat with her legs crossed underneath her, hands resting palm-up on top of her knees. She breathed in deeply before exhaling slowly and controlled. The air was clean and crisp here on Sumesh. The forests and the grasslands that stretched for miles were nothing like her home on Jakku. The dry sand storms she experienced on Jakku were just a memory now. Only five years had passed since she left, but it had felt like a lifetime.

Her poncho billowed behind her, as a warm summer breeze drifted around her. The sun on her face revitalised every inch of her body.

“Master Rey!”

Rey hummed in reply, her lips turning up into a smile, even though her moment of peace had ended too soon. Still with her eyes closed, Rey felt Oresa stand in front of her, the young girl blocking the sun from touching Rey’s face.

“What is it?”

“A message just came through for you, from Po-”

Rey cut off her young apprentice, “What do I always say? Poe can wait.”

“You’re too mean to him!”

 

Rey cracked one of her eyes open, squinting against the sun shining behind Oresa’s head. “You’re quite obsessed with him, you know?” Rey teased.

Oresa placed her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. 

“Okay, okay! I’m kidding,” Rey laughed.

“I know you are,” Oresa sighed, “can you at least come back to the temple now?”

“Lunch ready?” Rey asked hopefully. Oresa nodded and held out a hand for Rey to stand.

The temple wasn’t as grand as the name made it seem. It was a simple structure with two rooms, one for training, one for meditation. Behind the temple, in the cradle of two mountains, sat a large circular, single-levelled building where Rey and the other padawan learners lived. There were five apprentices Rey watched over, all between the ages of 13 and 17, with Oresa being the eldest.

The young girl had dark skin, with tight curls above her head. Her smile reminded Rey of Poe and her wit reminded Rey of Han. Oresa had been with Rey since just before her training with Luke ended; she was an orphan girl Rey had found roaming the streets of Coruscant. When Rey had felt the energy of the force surrounding the young girl, she knew she couldn’t leave her behind on such a terrifying planet with no one to care for her.

Rey’s training with Luke had taken two years. The day after his force-ghost left her, Rey met with the resistance one last time. She said her goodbyes to her friends and left to find the most isolated place possible so she could recreate the Jedi order without the First Order ever finding her.

These days, Poe tried to keep her informed on how the resistance was going, but Rey refused to listen to the majority of his messages. She had cut herself off from that world so the pain of leaving her friends didn’t affect her as strongly.

Time healed all wounds, she had learned. But some nights, very early on in her time on Sumesh, when it was late and all the children were asleep, Rey would sit alone in the temple and let the immense sadness she kept bottled up wash over her. Drowning her, suffocating her.

Back before the Battle on Crait, she had found solace in another that shared her loneliness, but now that man was long gone. His face a distant memory she hadn’t thought of in a long time. 

Oresa and the other children crowded around a long table, steaming bowls of soup before them. As they ate, the children floated spoons and jars of salt across the table. Some of the children even made themselves float in the air as they finished off their meal. Rey had long given up trying to get them all to behave. They laughed, and they smiled, and Rey felt fiercely protective of her young apprentices.

For a long time, she struggled to understand the despair and sadness that Luke had lived with. But, now, looking around the table at the children, Rey knew she would do anything to shield them from harm. If the Force Order barged through the front door she would not rest until she tore down every solider and every child was safely out of the First Order’s reach.

Rey decided a long time ago, if she ever saw Kylo Ren again she would kill him slowly, to make it hurt. Even though she knew that wasn’t what Luke would have wanted, Rey wouldn’t be able to stop herself.

In Luke’s last moments with her, she had begun to see a side of him that reminded her of the legends she had heard about the young Luke Skywalker - his unstopped momentum and sense of hope, and the endless amount of power contained inside him. He was one the strongest Jedi ever known, and in their training sessions he proved that to Rey.

Every day blended into one on Sumesh; Rey liked to stick to a routine. At dawn she would rise and wake the children, as they prepared themselves, Rey would help the droids make breakfast. After that, it was study, which everyone except Oresa hated. Then meditation to attempt to contain the bubbling energy the children had, and then there would be physical training until lunch. After that each padawan had their assigned jobs to do around the temple and the home to keep it in a good condition. Aleta, the youngest at 13, was particularly good at growing things, and spent all afternoon in the gardens talking to the plants, encouraging them to grow.

If Finn or Poe could see what Rey taught her apprentices to do with the force they would be shocked. Finn thought the only good use of Rey’s abilities was to end the war. And for this reason, a distance between them had grown. With every year, Finn became more obsessed with stopping the First Order, whilst Rey had chosen to distance herself from the violence. Rey called Finn close-minded, Finn called Rey selfish. But it would be her selfishness that rebuilt the Jedi order and returned balance to the galaxy. It was the Jedi that had maintained harmony in the galaxy before, and only when they returned in great numbers would the civil war finally end.

Rey was standing in the middle of the garden watching Aleta tend to her fruit plants when she felt a sharp pain in her leg. Rey doubled over, falling to her knees.

“Master Rey?” Aleta asked softly.

“I’m fine,” Rey said, her throat feeling tight. Rey gripped her right calf, running her hand over the bare skin. She rubbed the muscle, thinking she must have got a cramp but the pain didn’t seem to go. She could feel it throbbing, like an open wound.

“I think- I think I might go back inside,” Rey said quickly.

“Do you need my help?” Aleta asked kindly. Rey looked at the girl who was half her height and smiled.

“No Aleta, you stay here. You’re doing really well,” Rey said through a grimace. Aleta beamed at the praise and turned herself back to her work.

Rey hobbled back to the house, as she passed over the threshold the pain vanished and Rey could finally stand straight again.

Oresa rounded the corner in front of her. The young girl’s face was squished together in a scowl.

“What’s wrong?” Rey asked.

“I wish you would answer Poe, the holoscreen in your room keeps beeping and flashing and making all this noise,” Oresa said, stamping her foot and crossing her arms. The girl had a way of always amplying her emotions through her physical actions.

“You know how to turn it off,” Rey replied bluntly.

“Yes,” Oresa agreed, “But, I’m not allowed to go in your room.” 

Rey chuckled and began walking towards the small girl. “That’s never stopped you before,” Rey said to her and Oresa stuck her tongue out. Growing up as the eldest hadn’t made Oresa mature, Rey knew her own childish behaviour may have had something to do with that.

Rey left Oresa at the entrance to her room and dismissed the young girl with a flick of her hand. She didn’t need to look at Oresa to see the sneer on her face. Rey was still smiling to herself as she sat down at her desk by the window.

An incoming call flashed up on her screen as she sat. Rey pressed the dismiss button as her eyes read Poe’s name. It would take another fifty missed calls before she sent him a message. Although Poe’s persistence did make her admire him, it would never work on her. After five long years, he should have realised this.

After long days running around after teenagers and her hours spent centring herself through meditating, Rey normally found it easy to get to sleep, but tonight she couldn’t. She had rolled over every half hour and her eyes were stinging. Rey’s head was heavy on her pillow and her limbs felt exhausted.

The light from her holo on the desk flashed, the resistance was still trying to contact her. Rey rolled over again, shoving her face into the pillow, trying to block out the light.

Where her leg had hurt earlier today there was now a faint throbbing. She kicked her leg out under the sheets, trying to straighten the muscle to stretch it.

Rey managed to drift off for a few hours, but each time she was about to slip into a deep sleep a sound from somewhere in the house woke her up again. Night turned into early morning, and light from the rising sun poured into her room through the window.

Rey turned onto her back and stared up at her ceiling. After Oresa and her had first moved here, Oresa had insisting on painting fluorescent stars onto her roof that glowed in the dark while she slept. Gazing up, Rey could identify the small dots from the off-white tinge they had.

A sound reached Rey’s ears from outside, it was the rumble of an engine approaching. She shot up in bed and force-pulled her cloak from the other side of the room into her hand. Rey had just managed to wrap the cloak around her nightclothes when the front door was violently pushed open. Rey skidded to a stop in the middle of the hallway, she held her hand up at the light that poured in from the floodlights of a ship.

Rey squinted against the light, trying to makeout the shape of the stranger standing at her door. 

“Rey?”

“Finn,” Rey said.

Rey’s mouth was frozen wide open, in an expression of stunned surprised. Her exhausted state meant her brain couldn’t piece together what exactly was happening. Finn had rushed to her side; his mouth was open and he was speaking to her but Rey’s ears were ringing.

She stepped past Finn and outside. Two small cruisers had parked themselves in her front lawn, bright lights cutting through the morning light.

“What are you doing here?” Rey yelled over the roar of engines, whirling around to face Finn who had followed her back outside. 

“We need you to come with us!” Finn shouted to her. 

“Get away from here now, you were not to come here!” Rey cried, as she wrapped her cloak tighter her around her body. She moved so she was between Finn and the front door, ready to block anyone from going inside.

“We need you to come back with us to the resistence base! Rey, something’s happened,” Finn said, his voice pleading.

Behind Finn, Rey saw Poe walk towards her, an unknown man and woman trailed behind him.

“What’s happening?” Rey asked again, her voice still loud.

“Rey, this is Ulma and Ross. They’re here to look after your apprentices. You need to come with us!” Poe said, stepping up close to her. Rey raised her hands as if to push him way.

“No fu-”

“The First Order has just collapsed, the resistance has won,” Finn said abruptly, “Supreme Leader Kylo Ren has been captured, and we need you to come back with us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find me on tumblr - http://kenobsi.tumblr.com


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time has made Rey grumpy.

Rey stood with her arms crossed over her chest to cover up the way her arms shook. She was nervous here in the presence of people she had grown apart from. Rey felt like a young child again, resisting the urge to bite at her nails and run her hands through her hair until it became messy.

“You ready?” Poe’s deep voice asked from behind her.

Rey nodded, eyes looking straight ahead at the metal door. She heard the locks click and then the door slid open to reveal a room with black walls and a single dim light overhead.

Kneeling on the centre of the floor, a man had his head bent forward, a dark mane of hair covering his face. His hands where restrained behind his back and blood trickled down his arms and the parts of his face that you could see. As Rey stepped into the room, his entire body went rigid and Rey could hear him as he inhaled. 

Rey looked down at the man who had haunted her for years. Now here he was, hands tied, his weapon taken from him.

“Poe,” Rey said warily, looking towards the commander. Poe looked between her and Kylo carefully, hidden beneath his apprehension was a layer of smugness. The Resistance had captured the leader of the First Order and it all seemed a bit too easy. The war was over, the galaxy finally at peace giving the Republic the opportunity to rise back to its full capacity.

Rey kept her distance, a good five feet back from Kylo’s kneeling form. She could feel the force radiating from him and around him. The impression of him gave Rey an uncomfortable and somewhat revolting feeling deep in her stomach. The light side of the force that surrounded her tried to repel him, noticing his cruel intentions.

“I hope you brought me here because it means I get to kill him myself,” Rey said coolly, her eyes flicking across to Poe. 

Kylo head shot up at that to look at Rey. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of his face. This was not the face of the man she remembered from all those years ago. Facial hair lined his upper lip and jaw, the scar that crossed half of his face was redder and angry than ever. Cuts and bruises marked his face from forehead to throat. She noticed now his hair hung heavy with the amount of blood that had soaked through it. 

Kylo Ren was older in many ways. From the wrinkles near his eyes to the sharp line of his cheek bones, he wasn’t the man-child she remembered. His eyes looked upon hers filled with anger and something else she couldn’t place.

“No. That’s not how it works, Rey,” Poe replied, his voice going up an octave. 

Rey ignited her saber, feeling the pulse of energy travel up her arm. Her weapon was an extension of her body, that was one of Luke’s early lessons. 

“You couldn’t even stop me if you tried,” Rey said, her voice light, as if she was close to laughing.

Poe was definitely not laughing. His body had gone tense, his arm about to reach out to Rey. Whereas Kylo almost looked amused.

“Why did you capture him? What is the purpose?” Rey asked Poe, turning all serious now. 

“Let’s talk in private?”

Rey’s brows drew together towards the centre of her forehead and she looked between Poe and Kylo. “Whatever for? He’ll be dead within a day and you’re afraid to spill some secret in front of him?”

Poe’s jaw locked together, and he clasped his hands behind his back, trying his best to act like the commander Leia trained him to be. 

“Rey, please,” Poe went on.

Rey clicked off her saber, the blue light vanishing. She tucked it back into the pair of pants Finn had lent her to save her the embarrassment of walking around the station in her nightclothes.

Rey crouched down in front of Kylo who hadn’t stopped watching her every move since she said she wanted to kill him. She should have been worried about how intently he studied her, but she was too happy to see him tied up to fear him.

Their faces were aligned and she could feel his exhale on her face, all hot and sticky. She’d never been more repulsed by a person. She thought about how easy it would be to reach out with the force and choke him, or simply hold her saber in her hand and reignite it.

A smirk crept upon Kylo’s face and Rey wanted to punch him, to hear his nose crack under her fist.

As Rey went to stand the world around her blurred; everything happening so quickly. Rey felt like she was watching it all occur in slow motion, like she was experiencing - watching - it through a holo on her desk, completely unable to change her mistake of getting too close.

Kylo’s leg spun around from underneath him, knocking Rey to the floor. She fell hard against her face and her ear began to ring. She thought she could hear Poe cry out over the pulsing of blood to her brain. 

She felt Kylo’s weight press into her back, hand digging into her shoulder and flipping her over. His dark hair swept across her face and distorted her view of the cell, and then she felt the twist of her stomach as her body was transported.

 

Rey landed hard against a solid surface, the suffocating seconds of being transported made her gasp, inhaling a mouthful of dirt. Rey coughed and spluttered, trying to bring her hands to her face but felt them pinned down by something.

The sky was dark and her eyes struggled to make anything out. The force dimmed and then shuddered around her. Rey spun in the dirt, pushing with the force against the pressure on her back. She heard someone take a stumbling step backwards.

“What the-” Rey’s voice cut off as she looked up and saw Kylo Ren holding a red lightsaber towards her. “I’m going to kill you.” 

“Yep, sure,” Kylo said distractedly, “Now, hold your hands out. I’m putting these restraints on you.”

“Absolutely not,” Rey replied instantly, shuffling back. Her lungs burned and her vision began to tunnel as the effects of teleporting caught up to her.

“You want to do this the hard way?”

Before Rey got the chance to reply she was hit with a force that sent her flying across the ground and landing hard on her back again against something sharp. Kylo was on her in an instant, turning her over and locking handcuffs around her wrists before her vision had fully cleared.

“Son of a bitch! Get off me!”

Kylo mumbled something as Rey squirmed against his hands that pulled her to standing. Her feet wobbled and she felt her stomach contract. She hoped when she vomited it was on him.

“What the hell happened?” Rey yelled. “How did you do that?”

“I’m slightly offended, Rey. You thought the resistance could honestly capture me?" 

He was dragging her now, her weight completely sagging against him. Rey squeezed her eyes shut trying to push away the nauseating feeling she had. She thought she might pass out, but the thought of being unconscious in the presence of Kylo Ren frightened her body into staying awake. Adrenaline coursed through her and kept her somewhat upright.

She tried to draw on the force but couldn’t feel it streaming around her. 

“The force,” she gasped out, feeling like a part of her had been ripped away. Rey focused on her breathing, trying to draw energy to her but the world around her was dull and empty. It was like the force didn’t exist here.

“My invention,” Kylo said, his voice booming. Rey winced as her ears protested against the noise. “The cuffs, they block the force. If only your commander was smart enough to use a pair of them on me in that cell.”

“That’s not possible,” Rey whimpered, feeling physical pained by the lack of the force.

“A lot of things have changed since you decided to pull a Luke and disappear.”

Ahead of them a ship appeared in the darkness. It wasn’t Kylo’s usual command ship, but one that resembled a common cargo ship.

“I’m not getting on that ship with you!” Rey spat, trying to pull away but Kylo’s grip on her arm was effective. 

“You don’t have a choice,” Kylo replied. Pulling Rey to him so they were face to face, their chests almost pressed together. She squirmed against him, her face turning into a scowl. He thought for a moment she might spit on him. 

He felt slightly guilty for how annoying he was being, but this girl happened to be the most infuriating and stubborn person in the galaxy, so his options were limited.

She growled, actually growled at him, barring her teeth. 

“Okay,” he said, slightly shocked and created more space between them.

He pushed her onto the ship and into the co-pilot seat where he strapped the seatbelt around her. Her hands were still cuffed behind her back so her movement was limited now. Kylo fetched another pair of cuffs he had stored aboard the ship to lock her ankles together. 

She tried to kick out with both feet towards him as he knelt in front of her but he easily stopped the movement using the force.

“Hope you’re comfortable, it’s a long trip,” Kylo said with a smile, arranging himself in the pilot seat beside her.

“Asshole.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one will probably update slower than my other fic atm!


End file.
